I find nothing particularly wrong with streaming games.
Those of you who read MMO Fallout know that I have a natural distaste for hyperbole in advertising, and particularly in tech media as a form of clickbait. For more details on how MMO Fallout views hyperbole, check out our weekly “Five Games Everyone Wants” column. So I completely disagree when any hack fraud “journalist” pens an article claiming that streaming is “the future of gaming” and will replace installations completely, alongside their next food article about how you should throw away that boring Bok Choy because crystalized radishes are the new super veg!
So I don’t hate Stadia. While I have only acquired one game on Stadia and a copy of Doom64 I got for free with a $5 coupon, I have subscribed on and off to the Stadia Pro. $10 for the library of games they offer isn’t a bad deal for a month of playing them. Amazon Luna outclasses Stadia by a bakers mile and Xbox Game Pass laps both of them.
But I digress.
My problem doesn’t lie with Stadia, it lies with Google. Since Stadia launched in 2019 I have predicated most of my articles on the concept that while the service is not bad and the Pro a decent deal (when it launched), that I would never expressly recommend people buy Stadia games. Why? Google. Their track record of killing services at the drop of a hat. They call it prioritizing resources. It’s a bunch of lies.
Buying games on Stadia is a terrible idea because long term investment in any Google project is money waiting to be lost. There’s also the fact that Stadia games tend to cost just as much if not more than they do on the platforms they’ve existed on for the last few years, so you’re paying a premium for games that might be gone before the Xbox One and PS4 are fully depreciated. When Google closes down Stadia because they don’t feel like playing with it anymore, you’re not going to get compensated for your money. You’ll be lucky to get an apology.
If you want a better bet than Google Stadia, sign up for Amazon Luna. Luna may succeed or fail, but Amazon doesn’t have a massive graveyard of dead services. For the best bet go with Xbox Game Pass. At least in that case you can download the games should you own an Xbox or PC.
Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.
